AOB: Video Nasty

I was disappointed to see in the news today that the BBC trust have blocked the corporations plans for a £68million network of local video news sites.

The plans met with widespread criticism from local newspaper bosses, who are probably now sitting back in their exclusive private members clubs smoking big fat cuban cigars, brought with the profits generated by the countries thousands of poorly paid, downtrodden, local journos. Or something.

Anyway, I thought it was a great idea, and totally agree with the ever-pertinant Dave Lee (bonus points for mentioning U's Blog) and Roy Greenslade that the regionals need to pull their socks up when it comes to embracing the web.

Look at the CEN's video output: The news and sport videos rarely bring anything to the story that you couldn't have gleened from reading the text or looking at the pictures. Whats the point of watching a five minute video of Gary Brabin sitting in the Harris Suite answering questions when I could just read the article in 30 seconds and find out the information that way.

I strongly believe in the value of local news, and that there is a place for video within that, but the visual output needs to be original and interesting, and at the moment most of what is served up by our local papers is neither. Unfortunately most prefer to do things on the cheap, rather than providing their staff with the tools, training, or extra manpower to make something that they can be proud of.